Hope for the Church (1)
Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love. 1 Corinthians 16.13, 14
Two failures
The Church in Corinth in the days of the apostle Paul was a struggling church, not unlike many of our churches today.
In his first letter to the believers there Paul addressed the problems that were threatening to tear the church apart and bring disgrace on the Gospel. Essentially, the Corinthians were guilty of two failures: they failed to obey the teaching of Scripture they had received, and they were beginning to go beyond what the Scriptures require or permit in certain ways. They weren’t living up to what they’d been taught, and they were making up the rules about being a church as they went along.
They’d reached the end of their rope. Schisms, scandals, lawsuits, misguided teaching on marriage and spiritual gifts, and a service of worship that had become a platform for parading individual “spirituality”—all these problems were threatening to split the church and compromise their witness for Christ.
The Corinthians sent messengers to Paul, explaining their dilemma. Paul’s assessment of the situation led him to call for repentance and return to the true teaching and practice of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Our text represents his first concluding charge to the Christians in Corinth, and sums up his message for struggling churches in every age.
Appearances can deceive
Such as ours.
At one level, the Church in America would appear to be anything but struggling. Everywhere we look new churches are beginning, mega-churches are flourishing, older churches are holding their own, and a Christian subculture of music, media, and more is thriving.
Christian schools abound, and abundant Christian resources are available for Christian parents who choose to school their children at home.
The numbers look pretty good, too, with nearly 72 million Americans professing to have been born again through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Opportunities for Bible study, ministry activities, prayer groups, and mission or service projects can be engaged with a phone call in most communities; and, on any given Sunday, church parking lots would seem to indicate that all is well with the City of God in America.
But this is an illusion. For wherever you look at the Church in America today, it’s not hard to find areas where the plain teaching of Scripture has been set aside, or at least, badly compromised, and the influence of the world and its man-centered ways is well-established, and growing. Slippage in church attendance nationwide has frequently been noted, and, try though they may, churches are having a hard time persuading their neighbors to come back.
Are we even aware?
The Corinthians were struggling and knew it; that’s why they sent messengers to Paul, explaining the problems (some of which he’d already heard) and seeking his help in sorting things out. But the American Church seems scarcely aware of its plight and happy with the way things are. While there are doubtless problems and disappointments in every church, most Christians in this country today appear to be fairly content with the state of things. They would perhaps echo the sentiments of the Laodiceans in Revelation 3, “We are rich, we have prospered, and we need nothing.” If the unbelieving world is not going to find their way to us, then they should just leave us alone, and we’d be fine, thank you very much.
But Jesus, I believe, would conclude otherwise.
The Church in America is struggling to find itself—or perhaps I should say, not to lose itself. Increasingly, and in many cases without knowing, churches are straying from faithful obedience to the plain text of Scripture, setting aside whatever strikes them as inconvenient to focus only on what draws and keeps the crowd.
At the same time, in many churches we are going beyond the teaching of Scripture, looking to the world and its ways for how we should grow the church, worship the Lord, make disciples, and more. Many church members today are seeking their welfare not in the all-sufficient Scriptures, but in the ways of the world.
As a result, appearances notwithstanding, the American Church is struggling, and we could stand to reflect deeply on Paul’s concluding charge to the Corinthians.
For reflection or discussion
1. What evidence do you see that the American Church is struggling?
2. Why do you think church attendance has been declining in America of late?
3. Are you aware of any areas where your own church is struggling?
Next steps—Preparation: Make sure that you are praying for your church every day. If your church is not struggling, give thanks and praise to God.
T. M. Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment to give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
A good supplement to this ongoing study on the Church is our free PDF book, Pray for Your Church. Download your copy from The Ailbe Bookstore by clicking here. Also, we encourage you to visit our ReThinking Church page, where you’ll see a variety of free resources to help you church.
This week: Our Read Moore podcast continues an extensive look at the Kingdom of God from our book, The Kingdom Turn. In our Crosfigell teaching letter, we are looking at the state of pastors and churches during the period of the Celtic Revival, using contemporary witnesses. And in our Scriptorium column we are studying the Gospel of Matthew. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.
And please prayerfully consider supporting The Fellowship of Ailbe with your prayers and gifts. You can contribute online, via PayPal or Anedot, or by sending a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version0. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
